The findings were published in a special edition of the scientific journal Tropical Plant Biology.
The scientists - members of Canada's International Centre for Tropical Agriculture and the centre's Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security Research Program - said Cassava outperformed potatoes, maize, beans, bananas, millet and sorghum in tests using a combination of 24 climate prediction and crop suitability models. Cassava grows in poor soils and with little water, it is "a survivor; it's like the Rambo of the food crops," said climate scientist Andy Jarvis, the report's lead author.
By 2030, the report says, temperature rises of between 1.2 and 2 degrees Celsius combined with changes in rainfall patterns "will leave cassava in a class of its own." Cassava deals with almost anything the climate throws at it, Jarvis said, "it thrives in high temperatures, and if drought hits it simply shuts down until the rains come again. There's no other staple out there with this level of toughness." Jarvis said farmers could enhance nutrition and reduce risk from climate change by planting a diversity of crops, with cassava acting as a failsafe, Metronews reports.
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